Upcoming V4 changes -
* Battle Axe gets +1 PA
* Giant Axe gets +1 MA
I suppose I should comment on this one, as I'm the one who pushed for it.
Remember the calculation a bit back of "you have Meteor, you want to hit the Yardow Ninjas, and to do so you need to be fast"? I was realizing that Priest was beating Squire in every category that matters--more MP, and more MA thanks to the Wizard staff. And when you're supposed to be a carrier class and getting out-carriered by Priest (a class with a real skillset and "crappy" stats), it's time to go home and cry. Obviously Squires eventually get Rune Blade...but it's Geomancers who have an argument for gamebest carrier post-RB, not Squire. Felt like Squire needed a mid-game pick-me-up.
At the same time, does an MA+1 axe pump up Geo too much? Nope--shows up the same time as Ageis Shield (can't axe+sheild, so same MA for geos). PA+1 powers up geos for Punch Art a little, but if you want to forego Martial Arts Ninja/Dancer in favour of a Geomancer with a chapter 1 axe and no shield, I'm alright with this (thanks to 125 PA mult, it's competitive at some levels; probably overall weakest of the three classes, though). PA+1 is also an interesting way to make Battle Axe hit a little harder without making it blatant "use with Throw skillset".
* Poison Rod loses +1 MA, now gets +2 PA and randomly casts Bio 3 (Undead version)
I'll admit it: I'm a Wizard Staff fan. Poison Rod having +1 MA made Wizard Staff not feel special, and took away the one point in the game where Time Mages compete with Wizards for raw MA.
PA+2 on a mage...has some super-niche but entertaining uses.
* Mediator's MP multiplier decreased from 85 to 75
Mediators have 105/105/105 HP/PA/MA, the three important stats, which is often going to just be identical to 110/110/110 from Squires. There's three (realistic) reasons to use Squire instead:
WP: Jump+Axe, for instance
Move: 5 vs 3
MP: Doing head-to-head comparisons I was getting MP gaps like 103 to 114, which...felt so small.
MP was always Mediator's worst stat, yet we'd bumped the multiplier up to be equal to HP. Dropped it back down (though still above its original value).
* Monk gained innate [Move-HP Up]
* Time Mage gained innate [Float]
* Oracle gained innate [Move-MP Up]
* Oracle's MP Multiplier decreased from 110 to 100
"Hey, Archer's innate Ignore Height is cool. Maybe we can do some more of this. Like...hmm, could some class get Move MP Up? Actually, often early in the game I'm setting myself to get just enough MP for a big spell like Meteor or Holy. So...a low-MP class with Move-MP Up would be interesting, since I wouldn't auto-go to that class if I was looking for MP."
Laggy, however, is very obsessed with Symmetry. Can't give something to Oracle without giving something to the parallel class on the job tree (Time Mage). (Hey, innate Float on Time Mages is...kinda neat in like...four fights). He also wasn't comfortable with Move MP Up getting time but not Move HP Up. This created another problem:
"Geez, we're making Monks tanky now; what with cheap Equip Armor, and innate Move HP Up."
"Umm...you know, Equip Armor might be due in for a nerf--it's pretty ridiculous on a Chapter 2 Monk, and there's no penalty to it thanks to innate Gained JP Up and how little it costs."
So...Equip Armor went back to its original 500 JP.
The other concern was with MP Switch--you could now use Move MP Up with Move+2 or with Ignore Height. ...But it was reasoned you could also get the same effect by being Squire or Archer with Move MP Up, so...yeah.
The final concern was "that's still a pretty high MP mult--are you going to be locked into Oracle now if you want MP?" Seems to me no: other mages have more MP for Move MP Up if you don't mind the 3 move. Even if 3 move isn't good enough, 5 move Squire has more MP, and 4 move Geo has around the same MP.
And of course, just in general it fits the idea of Oracle--they already had a lower MP multiplier, but were the only mage class that could gain back MP (Spell Absorb).
* JP Cost Changes
The noteable one here is Jump changed JP cost again.
Was
Lv2/4/8: 150/300/900
Vt2/4/8: 100/200/600
Now
Lv2/4/8: 100/300/900
Vt2/4/8: .50/150/450
We felt most people were going to skip the L2s for L4s if they wanted cheap, so dropped L2s to 100/50. This broke the 3:2 ratio on horizontal to vertical...but it got us talking and we realized "wait, 3:2 ratio doesn't make much sense". So we went with doubling (and stuck with 2-4-8: that's doubling, baby!) The gap between the levels, however, is a trippling (100-300-900), which is okay since it's also exponential. (Mmmm...tasty, tasty math).
